1871. Trenton State Sentinel, 26 May. The New York Tribune is still after Senators Carpenter, Conkling, and others, with a very sharp stick, for their ridiculous course in the arrest and imprisonment of the Tribune correspondents, for daring to be true to the profession.
Shatterbrain (or pate), subs.
(colloquial).—A giddy person:
shatterbrained (or pated) =
heedless; weak in intellect. See
Shitterbrain and Shuttle-*head.
Shave, subs. (common).—A narrow
escape; a squeak (q.v.):
usually with 'close,' 'near,' &c.
Whence to make a shave (or
to shave through) = to get
through 'by the skin of one's
teeth.'
1844. Puck, 14. Of all the men that with me read There's never one . . . But got thro', if he made a shave on't.
1860. Russell, Diary in India, xxi. 'By Jove! that was a near shave!' . . . a bullet whistled within an inch of our heads.
1871. Daily News, 7 Mar. In those famous telegrams of the King the expression, "Danke nur Gott!" means "It was a close shave!"
1876. Burnaby, Ride to Khiva, Intro: I had, as it is commonly termed, a much closer shave for my life than . . . even if I had been taken prisoner by the most fanatical Turkomans in Central Asia.
1885. Field, 4 Ap. It was a desperately close shave.
1898. Gould, Landed at Last, vii. We've had some narrow squeaks of missing him . . . [a] narrow shave was at York.
2. (common).—A false report; a practical joke; a sell (q.v.)
1854. Morning Chronicle, 13 Dec. "According to camp reports or camp shaves, as they are more expressively termed."
1860. Russell, Diary in India, xii. At first a shave of old Smith, then a well authenticated report.
1874. Siliad, 29. The shaves are many; so the nests of mares.
1882. D. Telegraph, 3 Oct., 5, 7. Rumours of Turkish troops being landed as our allies adding to the shaves that hourly came out.
1884. G. A. Sala, Ill. Lon. News, 26 April, 391, 3. The legend is probably a mere barrack-room shave, but it is worth noting. Ibid. (1883), Living London, 115. Shave for hoax first obtained currency during the Crimean War.
3. (Stock Exchange).—A money consideration paid for the right to vary a contract, by extension of time for delivery or payment, &c.
4. (theatrical).—The proportion of the receipts paid to a travelling company by a local manager.
See Shaver.
Verb. (old).—To extort; to strip; to cheat (B. E.). Hence shaving (or shavery) = (1) usury, and (2) overcharge (with drapers called shaving the ladies). Also shaver = (1) a cheat, a swindler; (2) a banker, broker, or money-lender given to usury; and (3) shaver (q.v.): whence shaving-shop = a wild-catbank (q.v.); shaving-terms = make all you can.
1548. Latimer, Sermons, 100 [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 515. Latimer coins shavery, something like slavery; to express ths robbery of the Church].
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks. They fell all into the hands of the cruel mountain people, living for the most part by theft, . . . by these shavers the Turks were stript of all they had.
1606. Dekker, Seven Deadly Sinnes (Arber's) 40. Then haue you Brokers yat shaue poore men by most iewish interest . . . Then haue you the Shauing of Fatherlesse children, and of widowes, and that's done by Executors. Ibid., 39. The next . . . was . . . a shauer of yong gentlemen, before euer a haire dare peepe out of their chinnes; and these are Vsurers.
1638. Ford, Lady's Trial, ii. 1. Whoo! the brace are flinch'd, The pair of shavers are sneak'd from us, Don.
